Monday, April 29, 2013

DIY Laundry Detergent Try 1

There are tons and tons of posts out there about how to make your own laundry detergent. So many posts praise and go on and on about how cheap it is and how well they clean. I was so excited to try it out. I made my first batch I had 10 gallons of detergent, I was so excited! And I put it to the test... and it failed miserably!

Well my first attempt was a failure... however I will keep trying, and in the meantime I will post each recipe as I try it and let you know why I think it failed or succeeded.
The first recipe I got from the Duggars Family website. However I've read that you could use any bar soap on a few other sites so I substituted the Fels-Naptha soap for a hypo-allergenic dove bar. I have allergies to most soaps, so I thought I could avoid a case of hives.

My Recipe:

Directions

- Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.
-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.
-Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use.
Afterwords I added 30 drops of lavender essential oil.

Rating:

Cleaning: 2/10 It cleaned off blatant dirt, but it couldn't even get rid of the sweaty smell from my gym clothes, let alone touch the smell on my guys clothes. I didn't even bother see if it would touch my dirty scrubs from work.
Ease of use. 2/10 When they say it well gel, they mean really really gel. You have to shake the whole thing up to get it to flow out so you can pour it into the washer. It is super thick.

Super gelled

Allergic reactions: NA I never wore any clothes I cleaned with this, I threw it all back in the washer with the old detergent to actually clean.

Cost: 10/10 Borax 76 oz box = 9.5 cups $10 box = .21 c per 1/2 cup

Washing Soda 55 oz box = 7 cups - $5 box = .71 per cup

1 bar of soap. $1.50

All together my cost was $2.42. If I used 1/2 cup per load I made enough for 320 loads. So 0.008 cents per load... not even a penny.

So while this gets a gold star as far as cost... for cleaning and ease of use... zip. This well not be a recipe worth repeating.
PS anybody want 10 gallons of laundry detergent?
Shared at The Home Acre Hop